My bike was a custom build, not matching anything they could supply. I asked then to supply a like for like bike. I was offered a cash settlement a few days later.

Yeah, mine too.
I spent a while getting it right, so it's slightly galling to be on the hunt again.

That said, in the process of, I do have a better idea of what I want to replace it. And a few off the shelf ones wouldn't be bad starting points…

It's the daily commuter, so I'd rather it was replaced sooner than later, tho' I can cope without it for the time being.

Cheers for the info, guys :)

10 hours commuting a week, and some more riding at weekends.

Probably averages out to be around 15 or 16 hours/week over a year.

Great news, now who's going to make the T-shirt & what will it say?

How about a "Where's Sharki?" T-shirt, in the style of "Where's Wally?"

I'm not sure a cat would understand how to read a geiger counter

Wow Karinofnine- respect.

Blimey Karin! That's seriously impressive.

No disrespect meant, but why is it more impressive than a bloke who's done/can do all that stuff?
Wouldn't normally blink if a guy had said something similar.

I win, thank you! :)

Oooh, I'd like it :)

I suspect the right answer is "somewhere in the middle".

For my part, I bought at around the maximum I could borrow (4.5x my salary), and still be able to make repayments. Made sense to me as I knew I was fairly underpaid at the time, and had plans to rectify this.

Oh, and whilst larger houses are going to appreciate more, and are generally more comfortable to live in, it's worthwhile considering if the additional payments are going to negatively impact your lifestyle in other ways.

Hm… rig it to the disc rotor?

Yes!

Wait, no. That's frostbite.

djglover – Member

This happened to my road bike, on one of the bottle cage holes, after I'd had it powdercoated. Did they / you block up the holes?

Still not fixed, but it's doing sterling service as a commuter :)

Hmm, I'd been plotting a tool wall in the kitchen.

I really like the idea of a wall mounted workstand, too…

Sadly if you fill the stereo typical mould of a shoplifter,male mid 20,s,casual dress,alone,then you will be followed and stopped possibly.

Well, yes, that is me.

But seriously? Isn't the stereotypical shoplifter going to be in their teens?

Yeah, I'm kicking off as much as I can.

I spent about an hour and a half logging a complaint over the phone.
I've just written a letter to their complaints department, which I'll also be sending to their head office.

If I don't get a satisfactory response this week, I'll be there next weekend, advising any potential customers of their likely treatment. And if it comes to that, then yes, I'll probably be informing any local newspapers of this, too.

I don't believe that I did *anything* to even remotely suggest that I'd be shoplifting anything.

By all accounts, Applecare is fairly shocking, and their hardware isn't the most reliable.
I know of at least one Macbook Pro that went back with a faulty trackpad, and four months later (with considerable amounts of chasing) still hadn't been returned.

So what makes you unique that your repair takes precedence over others who were before you?

If it takes that long, one would question exactly why there were so many others there before you.

If it was a video camera, you could have played the footage backwards to make it work? :)

Who is doing the most 5 days a week?
I do about 26mile and up to 30mile round trip 5 days a week. That feels a lot at 130 mile a week as a base.

16 miles each way (32 mile round trip), 5 days a week.

Only outside working hours, on your own systems, though.

Log on at work, add your employer to your Facebook account – just make sure you delete it again at the end of the day. :)

Quite like the look of the E3 Triple for proper nightriding duties.

I'm curious as to how much resistance it would add though, I'd have to try one first.

I've done it (over several weeks), and it's doable.

However, I wouldn't do it again. Panniers make life a hell of a lot easier.

Careful strapping of bags on will ensure they don't get caught places and don't fall off, but there's always some faff involved with keeping them that way.
It's also a major hassle putting them on, and taking them off – which might not seem like a big thing, but getting bags off into youth hostels, or for packing on and off trains. It's muchly frustrating.

I'd have a look at some of the panniers that will convert into rucksacks, if that's a strong point for you.

Aha, thank you! :)

I'd also go with telling them where they can stick their job.

If there's really some reason you *have* to take this job, I'd look at some of the cheaper areas SE and inside the M25 (say Abbey Wood, Bexleyheath – not the nicest of areas, but I'm figuring budget isn't high). Should make cycling to either location a possibility. Central line to get to Westfield by 9am will just be grim.

Believe that it's perfectly legal to have a company which both owns your bike shop, and contracts you out.

Pay yourself minimal amounts, use rest to fund bike shop start up. Should be pretty tax efficient.

If you're insistant on leaving on Friday night, having them head out on the train to a more useful pick up location would be better.

I'd suggest they headed out somewhere northwest at around 7. It'll take you a little while to swing around the M25 anyway.

Yeah, another vote for early Saturday morning.

Cutting straight the way through the middle of London on a Friday night will involve epic amounts of pain.

Even better, get them to catch a post-rush hour train out to yours, and then leave Saturday morning, no messing around in London involved.

I started putting one together.

I know there's one or two missing on it, though.

had a remap on my audi a4 2.0 d
extra torque is great,no issues as far as i can see
got a box so i can change it back whenever i like to the standard map
about £350

Where from/What's it called? :)

16 or 17 miles each way. Every day.

I tend to find gumtree to be a collosial waste of time.
I reckon I've replied to upwards of 50 adverts.

In order of the most likely response:
1) Obvious scammers
2) No response
3) Timewasters

I don't think I've ever managed to buy something sucessfuly on gumtree.

I've had this a few times, always decline the offer on the principle that bidding up your own auction is a bit off.

On one occasion, I had a second offer literally within seconds of the auction end. I mean, come on!

If anything, I'd've thought that a car with a replaced engine would be worth less than a similar car with it's original engine…

I've got one, used it about 5 times and then never again.

I suspect I might start using it again if for some reason I was too broken to be outside on a bike, but I could still pedal (this seems like an unlikely circumstance, though).

chakaping – Member

Karin – There's a few of us (blokes) on here who ride near you. Drop me an email (in profile) if you'd like to come out sometime.

Yeah, there are one or two of us floating around.
I seem to have been out most weekends this summer, that's possibly going to die down a bit now the crapper weather is settling in. Probably not though :)

… for non-zero a, and c not equal to 1.

Yep, me.

Yeah, same here. M&S wanted more this year than last year – which I thought was pretty weird.

Put a quote through their website and it came out £160 cheaper. Result.

"Nice guys finish last"

Pisses me right off. Guaranteed to hate whichever whiner is using it.

With Gmail (perhaps others, I've not tested extensively), you can also add +thingy to the username section (e.g. mynormalusername+website@gmail.com, mynormalusername+someotherwebsite@gmail.com).

Useful for tracking down where spam comes from too, I use it a fair amount.

Nothing in that advert screams dodgy.

If a seller puts something up as an auction with no reserve, then they're presumably accepting the risk that it might not go for as much as they want.

Strange that people are questioning if the seller would sell at a given price, when it's effectively the buyers who set the price here.